I've been buying, trying and getting unnecessarily excited about gadgets for more than 20 years.
And yes, I still get excited.
Put a new camera in front of me with some clever feature and I'll probably want to play with it. Show me a phone doing something I've never seen before and I'll start wondering whether I actually need one. Give me a tiny charger that somehow pushes 100W and I'll probably spend ten minutes looking at it.
That's the fun of being a gadget geek.
But after two decades of watching technology companies launch the next big thing, I've learned one important lesson.
Never buy the hype. Buy the gadget.
There's a difference.
I've Fallen for It Too
Every generation has its magic words.
Once it was megapixels.
More megapixels obviously meant a better camera, right?
Then processors became the obsession. More cores. Higher GHz. Bigger benchmark numbers.
Screens joined the competition. HD became Full HD, then 2K, 4K, 8K. Refresh rates went from 60Hz to 90Hz, 120Hz and beyond.
Charging became another numbers game.
25W. 45W. 65W. 100W. 120W.
Now we have another magic word.
AI.
AI phone. AI laptop. AI camera. AI television. AI earbuds. AI refrigerator.
Give the marketing department enough time and I'm fairly certain we'll eventually get an AI toaster.
The technology itself isn't necessarily nonsense. Some of these improvements genuinely changed how good our gadgets are.
The nonsense starts when specifications become the reason we're supposed to replace perfectly good devices.
The Best Gadget Isn't Always the Newest One
This took me longer than I'd like to admit.
When you're interested in technology, there's always something newer.
You buy a phone.
Six months later, another phone appears with a slightly better camera.
You buy a camera.
Suddenly there's a newer model with improved autofocus.
You finally buy a decent power bank.
Then somebody releases one that's smaller, charges faster and has a tiny colour screen telling you exactly how many watts are moving through the cable.
And the gadget geek inside you starts whispering:
"Actually... that is quite useful."
Sometimes it is.
Most of the time, the gadget you already own is still perfectly fine.
That's something specifications rarely tell you.
After 20 Years, I Look at Gadgets Differently
I'm much more interested now in what happens after the excitement disappears.
Is the battery still good after two years?
Does the software remain usable?
Will the manufacturer continue supporting it?
Is that amazing feature something I'll actually use after the first week?
Can I repair it?
Can I replace the battery?
Does it make something I already do noticeably easier?
Those questions aren't as exciting as benchmark charts.
But they're usually better buying advice.
It's also why I increasingly like revisiting older technology. Gadget Geek has posts going back to the mid-2000s, and reading some of them today is fascinating.
Things that once looked revolutionary disappeared completely.
Other technologies became so successful that we barely notice them anymore.
And occasionally, an old gadget turns out to have been designed better than what replaced it.
I Still Want New Gadgets
None of this means I've become boring.
Hopefully.
I'll still watch product launches. I'll still look at camera specifications. I'll still wonder whether that new phone camera really can replace another piece of gear in my bag.
And occasionally I'll buy something simply because it's cool.
Being sensible all the time would defeat the purpose of being a gadget geek.
The difference is that I'm less interested in what a manufacturer tells me will change my life.
I'd rather find out what actually earns a permanent place in my pocket, desk, camera bag or house.
Because after 20 years, I've forgotten plenty of product launches.
But I remember the gadgets that were genuinely good.
MY TAKE
Technology marketing will always tell us that what we own is suddenly outdated.
That's its job.
Our job is deciding whether the new thing is actually better for us.
So yes, get excited about new gadgets. Read about them. Try them. Geek out over the specifications.
I certainly will.
Just don't confuse excitement with a reason to upgrade.
Never buy the hype. Buy the gadget.
